More from St. Petersburg

On Monday, we went to a bridge near the Church of the
Savior on Spilled Blood. As we approached the bridge, my husband told me that there was usually a wedding party there having pictures taken. Sure enough, there were two wedding parties. Another thing he told me that happens there is that the groom picks up the bride and carries her across the bridge. We saw them do that too.
I did ask him "Who gets married on a Monday?" and he told me just about any day he has come here, no matter what day of the week, there has been a wedding.

The brides' dresses were a bit more ornate than most of the dresses that are currently popular in the USA. They looked beautiful,though, and because it was a cold day, they wore little faux fur jackets with their dresses. The bridesmaids, though, had full-on parkas over their bridesmaids' gowns which surprised me a bit, because people have struck me as rather fashionable. The parka/ gown combo made me feel right at home. (Although we will generally take it up a notch for a wedding--at least the ladies). They looked pretty impatient with the picture taking; everyone's teeth were chattering.

We went to a restaurant featuring Russian food that evening and I had Solyanka, a sweet/sour/spicy soup which the server described as having pickled cucumbers and "meat." There was some sausage in it, and some other diced meat. It was actually pretty tasty, served with a side container of sour cream. I will eat a lot of things if I am given sour cream to have with them. Plus my time in China has made me pretty adventurous regarding meat. Eat it now, ask questions later. If ever. Need to know basis. It was good, though. I will try to make it at home.

Last night we went to the Mariinsky Ballet and Opera Theater to see the ballet The Sleeping Beauty. It was a great ballet, but long. There were three intermissions which I think must have been 15-20 minutes each. The dancing was wonderful and amazing; the costumes were gorgeous. The theater is elegant with gold-leaf and crystal chandeliers and those curtained boxes like you see in old movies.The domed ceiling had a painting and a frieze (I think) around the painting. On Friday, we will go there again to see the opera Madama Butterfly.

We tried to go to the Hermitage today but we got there too late to buy tickets (having slept late after the late night at the ballet, then being too wound up to go to sleep right away.) I think we will try to go tomorrow.

(If you have left me a comment, it will show up soon...just as soon as I can get this Cyrillic alphabet down pat, and perhaps a Russian/English dictionary so I know whether I'm saying to allow or disallow it. The unfamiliar characters are messing with my spatial memory so I can't remember which side means what.)